engleski

LIFECYCLE AND BRAND REPRESENTATION OF SMARTPHONES

Today’s market is significantly different when compared to the markets ten, twenty, or fifty years ago, which is especially true for the technological products market. The presence of many similar, related, and competing products has forced the manufacturers to think about the situation in a new way. The products no longer are, or can be, the result of exclusive production ; they are instead the result calculated on the basis of market demand, i.e. consumer needs. Smartphones are a very good example of this, considering that we cannot imagine a world without them. All the products available at the market have a lifecycle. Considering the large number of products at the market today and the strong market competition, it is not rare to see products that used to have a long lifecycle and represented powerful brands disappear from the market. The aims of this paper are to analyse the condition of the smartphone market, determine the position that smartphones have on the lifecycle curve, and investigate the representation of individual smartphone brands, the reasons for replacing, purchasing, and using smartphones. The research was conducted using a survey questionnaire on a sample of 233 study participants. The results have shown that the lifecycle of an individual smartphone model, regardless of the manufacturer, is regularly two to three years, which was recognised by telecommunication service providers, who defined their marketing strategy according to this information. The participants are replacing their mobile phones with increasing frequency ; they are keeping up with trends and spending an increasing amount of time on their smartphones. Implications of our findings are discussed in the paper.

lifecycle, smartphones, marketing strategy, brand

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